Update: Seward Highway inbound still restricted to one lane at Tudor after truck hits overpass

Update 4 a.m. Friday:

Traffic on the northbound Seward Highway at Tudor Road will be restricted to one lane again Friday after the overpass was damaged early Thursday by a truck, officials said.

Two eastbound lanes on Tudor Road will be open, but some turns will be restricted.

Original story:

Traffic on the northbound Seward Highway at Tudor Road was restricted to one lane Thursday after the Tudor overpass was struck by a dump truck with its bed raised, authorities said. Eastbound traffic on Tudor Road was also restricted to one lane.

MJ Thim, a spokesman for the Anchorage Police Department, said the bed of the truck was torn off and lying on the highway when police arrived. There were no injuries.

Thim said because the driver didn’t report the accident, police don’t know exactly what time it happened. A passer-by called 911 around 1:30 a.m., he said. The truck driver remained at the scene and is not facing charges at this time.

Shannon McCarthy, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Transportation, said the truck damaged one of the girders on the 43-year-old bridge, and the eastbound side is "not appropriate to support traffic on Tudor Road.”

The bridge is still structurally sound, but the damaged girder girder must be replaced, DOT said in an email Thursday evening. Crews will remove debris hanging from the bottom of the overpass, which has a clearance of 16 feet.

While repairs are underway, DOT will close the entrance ramp from Tudor to the northbound Seward Highway and redirect eastbound traffic on Tudor Road into the middle lane, McCarthy said; the right-hand eastbound lane will remain closed in the meantime. There isn’t a timeline yet for when the bridge will be repaired and when all lanes there will be open, she said.

All three lanes of the northbound Seward Highway are expected to be open to traffic early next week, she said. Police advised drivers to choose alternate routes and leave extra time to get to their destination.

“The Anchorage Police Department advises you to AVOID Tudor and Seward Highway,” police said in an update.

In March 2018, a truck struck an overpass on the inbound Glenn Highway in Eagle River, causing an hourslong traffic jam that became known as “bridgepocalypse.”